{"id":5373,"date":"2014-11-28T10:10:53","date_gmt":"2014-11-28T16:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/?p=5373"},"modified":"2014-11-29T01:13:22","modified_gmt":"2014-11-29T07:13:22","slug":"a-free-book-for-john-bunyans-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/a-free-book-for-john-bunyans-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"A Free Book for John Bunyan’s Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was John Bunyan’s birthday. Not sure who that was? He did live a long time ago, so perhaps that’s understandable, except that his book,\u00c2\u00a0The Pilgrim’s Progress,\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>has sold more copies in English than any other work besides the Bible.<\/p>\n

Here’s a little background on the time of Bunyan’s birth from Desiring God<\/a>, followed by a link you should check out.<\/p>\n

On November 28, 1628, in a quiet cottage nestled within the English parish of Elstow, during one of the most tumultuous times in the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history, John Bunyan was born.<\/p>\n

The place of Bunyan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s birth in Elstow was only a mile from the busy town of Bedford, where years later Bunyan would be imprisoned for over a decade for preaching the gospel. Like his father, Bunyan learned the simple trade of a tinker \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a mender of pots and kettles \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and came to be known as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tinker turned preacher\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when he began lay preaching in his late twenties. Bunyan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skill and passion drew hundreds of listeners. Theologian John Owen, a contemporary of Bunyan, when asked by King Charles why he went to hear such an uneducated man preach, replied, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would willingly exchange my learning for the tinker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power of touching men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hearts.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

But Bunyan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legacy is not so much in his preaching, but his writing. During his imprisonment in the Bedford jail, Bunyan wrote several books, including most popularly, The Pilgrim\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Progress<\/em>, which has sold more copies in the English language than any book besides the Bible. Today, the book still remains both an incomparable source of spiritual education and a classic in English literature.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the occasion of Bunyan’s birthday, Desiring God has released a revised version of The Pilgrim’s Progress<\/em> with a recently found preface by John Newton from 1776. Click here<\/a> for links to digital and print versions of the book. This would make a great gift for anyone this Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was John Bunyan’s birthday. Not sure who that was? He did live a long time ago, so… Continue Reading ›<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5373"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5375,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5373\/revisions\/5375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}